Among the laws reviewed in RFLD’s report Online violence against women in West and Central Africa 2026, one stands out as a model for the region. Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act 2020 names the harms women face online and pairs them with accessible reporting channels. This article explains what makes it useful, and where it falls short.
What the law says
The Cybersecurity Act 2020 (Act 1038) contains a cluster of offences on sexual abuse online:
- Section 66, sexual extortion: 10 to 25 years in prison, with no option of a fine.
- Section 67, sharing intimate images without consent: one to three years.
- Section 68, threatening to share intimate images: one to three years, even where no demand is made.
- No cyberbullying offence: the Act does not cover cyberbullying as such.
Why the threat offence matters
Section 68 is the provision the report singles out. Most laws, where they exist, punish the act of sharing. By then the harm is done. Ghana punishes the threat to share, even when the person making it has not asked for anything.
This allows survivors to seek help at the earliest stage, before images are released. It also recognises that a threat can itself be used to intimidate. The report describes this as a model provision for other states.
Reporting made accessible
A law is only as good as the channels that make it usable. Survivors in Ghana can contact the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) on the short code 292 or by WhatsApp on 0501603111. Reports can also be sent by email to report@csa.gov.gh.
The CSA also reports sextortion publicly as a distinct category. On 2 May 2025 it reported that losses to sextortion and online blackmail had risen from GH¢103,663 in January to April 2024 to GH¢499,044 in the same period of 2025. Publishing such figures signals that the problem is taken seriously and gives advocates evidence to work with.
Where gaps remain
Ghana’s framework is strong on intimate image abuse. Other forms of online violence are less well covered. The Act has no cyberbullying offence, and much of the abuse that women in politics face can take the form of insults and disinformation that fall outside these sections.
Monitoring by the Media Foundation for West Africa shows the scale of that abuse. In January 2025 alone, it recorded 31 posts of online gender-based violence against women politicians, more than 80% of them on one news site. Research released with UNDP Ghana in February 2026 found that women hold only 4.1% of district assembly seats, and documented online abuse among the forms of violence that politically active women face.
Treaty commitments
Ghana has ratified the Malabo Convention on cyber security and personal data protection. It is a party to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which gives it access to cooperation channels for obtaining digital evidence from foreign platforms. It has also signed the AU Convention on Ending Violence against Women and Girls, one of only five states in West and Central Africa to do so by May 2026.
Lessons for the region
The report draws on Ghana’s experience in its recommendations to all states of the region. States should adopt or amend laws to criminalise, in clear and proportionate terms, the sharing of intimate images without consent, the threat to share them, sextortion, cyberstalking and sexualised deepfakes. Ghana’s law already covers the first three.
Accessible reporting is the second lesson. Short codes and messaging apps meet women where they already are. Francophone states could adapt the model, with channels in French and in national languages.
Sierra Leone, with its Cyber Security and Crime Act 2021, and Liberia, with its Cybercrime Act 2025, have since adopted their own intimate image offences. The report points to Ghana’s section 68 as the model for the threat offence.
Further reading
The report summary sets out the full recommendations. For Ghana’s wider legal framework on women’s rights, see RFLD’s women’s rights laws pages.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Online violence against women in West and Central Africa 2026, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
